Curly World Travel was founded by Carolina Smith after deciding to combine her love for travel and renewed sense of self-worth for her curls into one.  For many years, Carolina battled with her natural hair, giving into the high pressure standards of the beauty industry and corporate world for straight and "tame" hair.   She remembers many days crying about her hair because she could not get her curls to behave the way she wanted them to.  It would always be "too poofy and frizzy" instead of "calm and sleek" and it didn't help when people would tell her all the time that her hair was big and "poofy".  Although they may not have meant it in a negative way, her own insecurities received the comments negatively.  She would constantly compare her hair to others instead of loving what she had. ​  At her time at UCLA, she felt increased pressure to straighten her hair to fit in, as African Americans were only 2% of the student population.  Mixed race was even smaller. She felt even more pressure entering into the corporate world as people convinced her to straighten her hair or keep it in a bun during the interview process to increase her chances of being hired.  This basically told her that her hair was unprofessional and that there was no place for her curls in an office.   Eventually, Carolina moved to South Korea for a year where she was able to get a fresh start and find herself again.  Because she was a foreigner, she was not pressured to follow the beauty standards of Korea and instead, felt valued for being different.  Even when she felt her hair looked terrible, others would tell her the opposite. As she began traveling more, she decided that she loved being different and would stop straightening her hair. Instead, she wore it unapologetically out, despite the damage in her hair from years of curl abuse. It was time for her to stop hiding behind a mask. After her return to the states, she was introduced to the world of curl specialists and did a big chop in 2018 to remove all of the damaged hair from years of straightening.  It was liberating and she has since learned to show her curls unconditional love. ​With all of her experiences put together came the birth of Curly World Travel, the first and only travel agency for the curly hair community.  Carolina hopes to empower all of her "Curlfriends" to love themselves and increase representation through travel. She wants the entire world to see how beautiful each and every curl is, no matter if you have 2C hair or 4C hair.  It is time for us to shine!  Thank you for taking this journey with us.  We look forward to helping you create everlasting travel memories and unconditional love for your curls!